Future Directions in Public Order Policing: Regionally, Nationally and Internationally

From ‘anti-fracking’ protests to football the effective management of high-risk crowd events poses a major and ongoing challenge to police forces locally, regionally, nationally and internationally.

As recent events readily demonstrate these crowd events can pose significant dangers with respect to the emergence of major and critical incidents that then serve to severely undermine public perception of the credibility and legitimacy of the police. But of equal importance in today’s climate of austerity is the large economic burden public order policing places upon police forces across the region, which otherwise undermines performance measures in other key target areas.

The N8 Police Research Partnership, a consortium of the eight research intensive universities of the north of England, has been funded by the College of Policing Innovation Fund to establish and formalise a regional network of research and innovation in policing. As part of this project the University of Leeds is hosting a strategic workshop on public order policing. The event is supported by Chief Constable Justine Curran, the National Policing Lead for public order. The intention of this working group is to draw together key strategic leaders and innovators in operational policing from across and beyond the region to meet together with representatives of the Home Office, the National Lead for public order, the Head of Uniform Operational Support from the College of Policing and leading academics. The workshop will provide a forum for sharing current thinking about the police professionalisation agenda in this domain and to discuss how universities in the region can support and work in partnership with the Police Service in the endeavor of pursuing good practice in public order management, particularly with respect to developing strategic cooperation, potentially reducing public disorder, alleviating costs and developing an evidence based approach to the policing of crowd events.